3D Print Camera Gear: Edelkrone Flextilt Head 3D Test Review

Testing out 3D printing our own photography gear at home!

Recently the camera company Edelkrone made a big announcement: They have begun offering their products for purchase via online download, and print them at home yourself! For photographers looking to 3D print their own DIY camera gear and photography accessories, this could be a real game changer. The truth is that as 3D printing becomes more and more economical, it is likely to become a legitimate way to purchase goods and save money AND time. But although the idea of 3D printing a camera at home sounds like Star Trek technology level awesome, is 3D printing camera gear actually the future, or is it just an overhyped fad? I decided to 3D print, test & review the new Edelkrone Flextilt Head 3D at home.

Edelkrone’s newest adventure: ORTAK – 3D PRINTABLE PRODUCTS
ORTAK is a new 3D printing & co-manufacturing approach by Edelkrone that allows anyone to own fully-functional, high-tech products at greatly reduced prices. With the ORTAK method, camera gear is 3D printed by you and edelkrone manufactures the critical parts, such as CNC machined aluminum joints (or possibly electronic components in the future) to minimize cost, while making sure the end product works flawlessly. While Edelkrone ships the critical parts, you will 3D print the rest of the product and have the ability to customize the design, form, and color to your needs.

According to Edelkrone, soon, 3D printers will be in every house…

Right from their website they say “If you don’t already have access to a 3D printer, it may be time to invest in one to make ORTAK products even more feasible and see the time it takes for a return on investment drop drastically.”

In reality however, the cost is still pretty extreme for this approach. I’d recommend 3D printing at a local library or supplier. Edelkrone’s long term plans are to use the ORTAK co-manufacturing method to decrease costs for both the company and the customer while enabling highly customizable and more personal products. Lets put it to the test as we 3D Print, review and test their Edelkrone Ortak Flex Tilt Head 3D!

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[powerkit_collapsible title=”VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: 3D Printing Camera Gear! Edelkrone FlexTilt Head 3D Review & Test”]
okay so I just read the most interesting
article I’ve seen all week and that is
that there is a company called El chrome
who creates camera gear that is now
offering 3d printed products for
purchase did you order the template
online you go to a 3d printing shop you
print all the parts and put it together
at home kinda like Lego right so I
figured you know what this sounds
interesting
I would like to print camera gear at
home let’s give it a try
now the first step in this whole
adventure is going to be finding
somewhere I can actually print this
piece maybe our local library or if it’s
a place near me so I’m just going to go
in here into Google did you have 3d
printers in the library that people can
come in use ok I’ll continue my quest
thank you alright
ok let’s try somewhere outside it works
empty maybe Newport Beach reach the city
of people favorite reference test
unfortunately all of our vision parent
evil sisters here this time Thursday 3d
printing Irvine we got okay purple
porcupine that sounds great
the porcupine the most noble of
creatures we’re just going to go to
their website write them a little mail
message as opposed to a non mail message
and so that very same day I actually
heard back from Matthew at purple
porcupine and he said absolutely Ryan we
would be super interested in working
with you on this so all I had to do was
order those parts off the edelkrone
website and then we’ll put it all
together
alright so the big day has come I waited
the weekend I shaved my beard and I gave
you what you were looking for and that
is me with a mustache going to pick up a
3d printed March so if you’re wondering
what does this gentleman look like if
you sporting a fine mustache well now
you know so we’re driving to a purple
porcupine and they are going to print
this part for me so I am going to and
we’ll
I have the part I’m driving home I’m
ready to give it a try I am so so
excited honestly you don’t know how cool
3d printing is until you walk into a 3d
printer and you see it in action as the
piece is just materializing out of
nothing it’s unbelievable it’s like
being in Tony Stark’s laboratory wake up
daddy’s home so when it comes to 3d
printing you get really excited because
when it comes to camera gear can you
imagine just being able to go online you
look at that l Chrome slider you want
and you say I’m gonna buy this so you
download the file you send it your
printer and 2 hours later you go and
pick it up like how cool would that be
now the guy’s a purple porcupine have
decided to hook you up if you want to
try this for yourself they’re going to
give you like a 40% discount off of your
own parts so I’m gonna put the
information in the comments below and
you can print it in whatever color you
like and it’s just really cool because
it’s 3d printing and for 10 bucks more
they are willing to put your name in
your own purple porcupine and 3d printed
camera gear alright so make sure to
check out the comments if you wanna give
that a try now we need to make a very
quick pit stop all right let’s do this
thing
so as you can see the whole package
comes in a nice little box for metal
crow and everything is organized and
looks very fancy I spread it out on the
table and got to work on the
instructional page which was I’ll be
honest a little hard to follow if you’re
better at Lego than me maybe it’ll be
easier for you but this took a long time
of just trying to figure out which
pieces went together and which pieces
the diagram was referring to was a
little confusing but I did find that
certain pieces really just did not want
to fit the way they needed to so you’ll
see that I actually had to hammer some
of these pieces in just to get them to
fit right because they weren’t seated
properly and it’s really important that
you have all the pieces tight and nice
as they’re supposed to be now here’s the
final product after I had finally
tightened it up that’s the real keys you
need to go through and tighten it not
too tight but not too loose so that the
tension will naturally hold your camera
up and here we have the finished product
now the big question you’re probably
asking is how well does this actually
work and my answer to that is it works
all right it’s still plastic and that’s
where it becomes obvious is when you
actually have your camera on it you can
see that it’s not even standing
perfectly straight up because the
plastic pieces tend to bend and wobble a
little bit as you’re using it also
getting the tension to work properly was
very hard I found that my camera if the
tension was too loose would just fall
back down and if it was too tight it was
almost impossible to adjust and every
time I did I felt like I might actually
break the thing you also have to watch
out for this
so am i happy with this build my answer
would be yes with a few but and that’s
because 3d printing does have its
limitations and I realized that once I
put this whole thing together and
started testing it as I showed you in
the video when this thing is not under
the right amount of tension it will tend
to just move and not hold its position
properly however if you tighten it up
enough that it’s not going to have that
issue you find that it becomes very hard
to properly adjust and so it’s kind of
hard because the plastic is actually
flexing as you’re making these
adjustments and that’s where you really
notice that plastic versus metal the
metal simply does better however this
tool is still super helpful if I want to
just set it on a tripod permanently and
get those bird’s-eye view shots for the
occasional product review or
demonstration I can do that I’ll just
tighten this up I don’t have to worry
about it moving and life is good so what
I recommend doing this yourself
absolutely if you have access to
3d printer it’s a really fun really
interesting and definitely cool to see
where camera gear might be going in the
future
is it worth paying $100 to 3d print and
then put it together and pay another 30
bucks for the pieces and that’s where
I’d probably recommend getting the
actual all-metal design because it’s
simply going to work more consistently
for you you’re not going to be finishing
with this plastic and long term I don’t
know how durable this is going to be yet
it might be no issues it might kind of
have issues after it’s been used a
certain amount of time because it’s
plastic right
so overall happy with this build I hope
that this was helpful for you in
deciding whether you want to 3d print
your own camera gear give this a try
definitely a huge thanks to purple
platypus those guys are absolutely
incredible when it comes to providing
information on getting the best possible
build quality using certain plastic
composites versus others they had all
sorts of insight for me that I just I’m
sure I would have messed something up if
I hadn’t had their help and if you want
to print your own through them they are
going to give you a special discount
make sure to check the description for
the info on that you can print it in
whatever color you want that is the
advantage of 3d printing and they will
even engrave your name on your gear
which is pretty cool so I hope this
video was helpful if it was please hit
that like button don’t forget to
subscribe for more great content
tutorials resources all sorts of cool
stuff and I will see you in the next
video
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